Brother Dean Busted.

Dean Frederick Saxton, who made a name for himself by telling women they 'deserve' rape (Screen cap).

Dean Frederick Saxton, who made a name for himself by telling women they ‘deserve’ rape (Screen cap).

Finally, this asshole has been arrested. It’s about damn time. Unfortunately, this plague on the UofA campus saw a slap given, banning Saxton from the campus for one year, and he has 10 days to contest this. Why not go for a permanent ban, UofA? How about letting your students know they are most important, rather than supplying targets for Saxton’s brand of hatred and harm? Grow a bloody spine, and ban this asshole forever, take out a restraining order, whatever you have to do, because do you really want to be known as the adult leaders who thought it was okay to have a man on campus, yelling at students that they deserved to be raped? How about all the students who agree with him, and might take this as encouragement to act?

bro

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) –

A controversial street preacher known as Brother Dean has been accused of assaulting a University of Arizona student, authorities said.

Rene Hernandez, a spokesperson for the University of Arizona Police Department, said Dean Frederick Saxton was arrested around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20.

Saxton has been accused of kicking a woman in the chest and has been banned from the UA campus for one year.

Sgt. Filbert Barrera, spokesman for the UAPD, said Saxon was given an one-year exclusionary order and has 10 days to contest it.

Saxton was booked into the Pima County Jail on an assault charge. Bond was set at $641 and he is expected to appear in court.

Via Tucson News Now.

Facebook, Oh Facebook VIII.

State Sen. Jason Rapert (Facebook).

State Sen. Jason Rapert (Facebook).

Arkansas Senator Jason Rapert went on another screedfest on facebook, had his posts removed, and the Bully of Bigelow proceeded to whine about it so much that FB restored his nasty bigotry rants. Mr. Rapert isn’t like very much by his constituents, who appear disgusted but not in the least surprised.

Arkansas Times reports that Rapert is claiming vindication after Facebook has decided to restore posts he wrote over the weekend where he declared his support for rounding up and deporting not just Muslim extremists, but “every single Muslim extremist sympathizer and other anti-American crazies.”

“Regardless of who is responsible for these events today – we need to round up every single Muslim extremist sympathizer and other anti-American crazies and detain them or deport them,” wrote Rapert in response to the mass stabbing that occurred in a Minnesota mall and the dumpster bombing in Manhattan. “And for goodness sake – stop bringing more Muslims into this nation.”

Rapert also said that Muslims “wait for every opportunity to convert Americans to Islam or kill the infidels — that is what their holy book the Koran instructs them to do.”

I can’t even work up an eyeroll for this isht anymore. Just what does your bible tell you to do, Mr. Rapert? It wouldn’t have anything at all to do with converting people, preaching that gospel, saving souls or constantly committing genocide on people who were somewhat different (or had something “god’s people” wanted). It’s the same fucking religion, you idiot! Same god! Oh, and I’m fairly sure the Quran doesn’t specifically mention America, anymore than any version of the bible, you flaming idiot.

Well, in the end, FB caved to this genocidally minded puffbag of idiocy. Shame, that, because I think these posts are terror-focused. They are certainly filled with hate and the desire to harm.

Via Arkansas Times, Arkansas Online, and Raw Story.

Atheists Still Hated, Just Not Quite As Much As Muslims.

Crowds of atheists and other freethinkers assembled by the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool for the Reason Rally on June 4, 2016, in Washington, D.C. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks.

Crowds of atheists and other freethinkers assembled by the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool for the Reason Rally on June 4, 2016 in Washington, D.C. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks.

(RNS) Maybe atheists should just embrace it as a slogan: “Atheists: The group Americans love to hate.”

About 40 percent of Americans say atheists “do not at all agree” with their vision of America, according to a new study from sociologists at the University of Minnesota who compared Americans’ perceptions of minority faith and racial groups.

But the study marks a grimmer milestone — Americans’ disapproval of Muslims has jumped to 45.5 percent from just over 26 percent 10 years ago, the last time the question was asked.

And “nones” — those who say they have no religious affiliation, but may also have spiritual or religious beliefs — are also unpopular. This is significant because nones now make up one-third of the U.S. population.

The study found:

  • Almost half of those surveyed — 48.9 percent — said they would disapprove of their child marrying a Muslim, up from 33.5 percent in 2006.
  • The spiritual but not religious are mistrusted by 12 percent of Americans, while almost 40 percent of Americans say the rise of the “nones” is “not a good thing.”
  • Disapproval rates for several minority groups have grown — Jews, Latinos and Asian-Americans experienced 10-point jumps in disapproval, while recent immigrants, conservative Christians and African-Americans grew about 13 percent each.

The new study also attempts to find out why atheists are so reviled by what its authors call “dominant group members” — aka religious Americans. The findings pinpoint three things: Religious Americans associate atheists with “criminality,” materialism and “a lack of accountability.”

Considering how often various religions and religious people are shown to be engaged in criminal activities, such as child rape and fraud, it staggers me that we continue to be associated with criminality and a lack of accountability. As for accountability, what comes to mind are a string of public ‘confessions’ by high profile Christians, complete with crocodile tears, proclaiming their supposed regret for fraud, adultery, or whatever crime, and saying they are accountable to god. I don’t care about that, because being accountable to a god means absolutely nothing. I am not accountable to any god, I am not accountable to any fictional character. I am accountable to other people, human and not. That is what matters, taking responsibility for my own life, and every way that life affects or impacts others. Christians are quite willing to be utterly immoral, telling themselves that this, that or the other is ‘god’s will’. (I speak more of Christians, because the bulk of my exposure and experience is with one form of Christianity or another.) They often speak in the most appalling terms, and are openly hateful and bigoted. Yet, it’s the non-religious who remain blamed for all the ills.

Abrahamaic based religions are highly splintered, particularly so in the States, with a rather amazing amount of different flavours of Christianity. I really feel for all the Muslims who are now the focus of much hatred, because if there’s one thing I wish Christians at large would get through their collective thick skull, it’s that the religious belief is the same. Abrahamaic based, same basic beliefs, same god, same, same, same. Yes, interpretations are different, but the basic belief? The same.

The study’s authors — sociologists Penny Edgell, Douglas Hartmann, Evan Stewart and Joseph Gerteis — describe the jump in disapproval of Muslims as a major change and are focusing now on identifying reasons for it.

“Religion becomes a signal and a marker, an easy shorthand for Americans’ moral judgment,” Hartmann said. “But that is not the only thing going on with Muslims. It’s more complicated.”

But Hussein Rashid, an adjunct professor at Barnard College who frequently writes and consults about Islam in the U.S., said the jump in anti-Islamic sentiment the study pinpoints is reflected in the current political rhetoric.

“The data from this survey shows that there is an increasing pull away from the promise of America,” he said in an email. “In 10 years, people have a more negative perception of Muslims, Jews, gays, Latinos, and Blacks. As a new America is taking shape, with all its diversity, there is a reactionary response that wants a mythic America of everyone being exactly the same.”

The study has more bad news for atheists — despite a decade of organized effort from groups such as American Atheists, the Secular Coalition for America and Openly Secular to normalize nonbelief, Americans are not buying it — religious belief remains a measure of trustworthiness and belonging, the study found.

“Overall, we find no support for the idea that the increasing visibility of non-religious persons, groups, and movements in American life has reduced anti-atheist sentiment in any significant way,” the study’s authors write.

[…]

The study was written from data collected in 2014 from 2,500 participants. It was published in the current issue of Social Forces journal. The previous study was published in 2006 by three of the same authors.

Via Religion News Service.

Fashionista Jesus.

A stained glass window at Rochester Cathedral depicts the resurrection of Jesus Credit: Luke MacGregor/Reuters.

A stained glass window at Rochester Cathedral depicts the resurrection of Jesus Credit: Luke MacGregor/Reuters.

People are not at their best when stretching themselves like a rubber band in order to justify and rationalize, and that’s certainly the case with Fashion Jesus. Unlike many people, I’ve read the bible, cover to cover, more than one version.  Given that reading, I can say that the bible is not overflowing with fashion, hot or otherwise. Well, okay, there’s some interesting bits, clothing-wise in Revelation, but other than that, the bible is a bit skint on the fashion side. That’s not stopping people from claiming they are being inspired by Jesus’s great fashion sense.

…But now Jesus is being put forward as an icon of an entirely different sort – in the world of fashion. The Church of England has given its blessing to London Fashion Week with an official video making the Biblical case for the clothing industry.

Shrugging off the “sackcloth and ashes” image of clergy’s puritan forebears, it argues that – despite criticism of the industry over size zero models and cases of sweatshop factories – fashion and design are ultimately an expression of God-given creativity.

In one extract, the Church’s de-facto catwalk chaplain says fashion designers have told him that they draw inspiration from church interiors, stained glass windows and even Jesus’s cloaks.

The Rev Peterson Feital, the Diocese of London’s “Missioner to the Creative Industries”, said many had been drawn to the “beautiful clothes” Jesus is often depicted wearing.

“Designers ask me about fashion,” said the Brazilian-born Rev Feital, who also runs “Haven+” a charity working with people in the fashion and entertainment industries.

“They are all so interested when they walk into a church building or a cathedral and they see the stained glass windows and what they see there are beautiful figures and Jesus wearing beautiful clothes – a cloak and all that kind of stuff.

“So right there in the centre of our worship there are so many elements in which fashion belongs in that conversation between church and culture.”

Simon Ward, a former chief operating officer of the British Fashion Council, said that despite questions about how aspects of the industry operate and the “image it conveys”, he was convinced fashion itself is divinely inspired.

“He’s a God of creativity, and fashion is just one of those areas that really focuses on creativity,” he said.

“And what did He do first? He created the seasons, so the idea that fashion changes a lot again I think reflects God’s heart.

“All the way through the Bible clothing and fashion imagery jump out of the pages at us. In the New Testament the first Christian in Europe was Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth … The image we get of Jesus in heaven is what he’s wearing, with a gold sash around his chest, and then the New Jerusalem comes down; what are we told about it? – ‘dressed as a bride’.

“So I think God and fashion really are closely linked and if we think that they’re not we’re getting it wrong.”

No. No, no, no, no, no. None of this has the slightest thing to do with Jesus, and it barely has a connection to any bible. What they are copying, and claiming to find inspiration in is the work of artists. As an artist myself, I can say that there was much exaggeration in stained glass art, and other art found in cathedrals. Artists love colour, we love textural things, luxuriant and rich things. It’s doubtful that Jesus, if he existed at all, wore any of the high status clothing depicted in stained glass windows. Rough cloth, rope sandals, and very dirty feet are probably closer to how any itinerant preacher would appear. There wouldn’t be much fun depicting that. The powers that commissioned cathedrals and similar expected artists to portray everything in an overwhelming way, one that would stir emotions along with stimulating the visual sense. For the olfactory, there is always incense burning, and the scent of flowers. For the aural, the echoing silence and wind of whispers. Not one bit of this artistic creation has so much as a single flake of paint in reality.

I don’t think it’s at all wrong to pull inspiration from the work of previous artists and the stained glass of cathedrals. I do take issue with the whole Fashion Jesus lie.

Via Telegraph.

McCrory: Nthing Down.

Credit: Youtube.

Credit: Youtube.

You really can’t say that McCrory is doubling down at this point. It’s gone far beyond that. He hangs onto HB 2 like it was a life preserver and he a drowning man. I don’t know why he clings so very hard to this hateful bigotry, especially in the face of so much opposition, not only from people all over the States, but from his own constituency. The majority of people in NC are not invested in this legalization of hate and fear; they don’t want this enacted. [See the full article for stats.] Surely, it must have occurred to McCrory that he could salvage at least a part of his reputation if he stepped back and killed HB 2. People might not like him, but he would at least get grudging respect for doing the right thing, for once. Unfortunately, McCrory is still McCrory, and he’s busy spreading his hate, fear, and bigotry as far as he can. Beware, there’s a major irony hazard coming up:

A new campaign ad from North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory released Wednesday defends his anti-trans bathroom bill on the basis of “privacy and safety.”

The 30-second spot is intended to answer criticisms of House Bill 2, the controversial legislation that effectively forces trans people to use public restrooms (in government buildings) that do not correspond with their gender identity; it also invalidated all municipal protections for LGBT people, and makes it impossible to pass future pro-LGBT housing and employment laws. In the ad, McCrory stands by the embattled bill, which was introduced, debated, and signed into law in a single day.

“You know, when we were raising average teacher pay, creating new jobs, and cutting taxes, other folks were actually pushing to make our schools allow boys to use the girls’ locker rooms and showers,” McCrory claims. “Are we really talking about this? Does the desire to be politically correct outweigh our children’s privacy and safety? Not on my watch. Our kids and teachers are my priority.

“This is North Carolina,” he concludes. “Let’s do what’s right.”

Wouldn’t that be something, seeing McCrory doing something right? As for his “watch”, from what I understand, there’s hardly a thing McCrory has touched that hasn’t been a major fuck up. By this time, McCrory knows about trans* peoples, and how they work, so he has zero excuses for this “oh no, boys in the girl’s locker room!” nonsense. This has been ceaselessly debunked, and yet he carries on. He is an excellent example of someone who holds up hate and bigotry as virtues, I’ll give him that much. Content Note: contains lies, bigotry, and hate.

Full Story at The Advocate.

Sunday Facepalm.

billboard

When, oh when is this utter bullshit going to die? No, no, no, no, there’s no such thing as ex-gay. You are what you are, and while people everywhere have their own ways of dealing with who they are, this ex-gay business is not only toxic, it causes a great deal of harm, and way too many deaths lay at the door of this religiously fueled poison. This is yet another vehicle for hatred, fear, and bigotry. Instilling a sense of worthlessness in people is not a good. Telling people that they cannot live at all unless they are in the confines of a religiously defined prison is not a good. Telling people they deserve hatred, bigotry, and bullying is not a good. These so-called therapies are torture, a torture which often leads to suicide. Very young people are often the target of such programs. As with most of these programs, this one teaches that all queerness comes from a traumatic event in a person’s life, promoting the lie that gay people are predators.

Groups are still pushing “conversion” or “ex-gay” therapy — which attempts to turn LGBT people straight or cisgender — and pouring money into promoting the dangerous practice.

The latest billboard appeared this week in Waco, Tex., according to the Houston Chronicle. “Ex-Gays prove change is possible,” the billboard reads, with a beaming man’s face appearing next to the words.

Numerous mental health groups have condemned “conversion therapy,” including the American Psychological Association, and warned it can contribute to depression, anxiety, drug abuse, homelessness, and suicidal ideation. California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, and Vermont have all made it illegal for minors to be exposed to the fradulent practice.

The Waco billboard was not greeted warmly by everyone in the conservative central Texas city. Charley Garrison, a minister of the LGBT-affirming Central Texas Metropolitan Community Church, vowed to hold a Pride event at the site of the sign. Others have countered “ex-gay” billboards by erecting affirming signs challenging the message of “ex-gay” supporters.

If you’re in the area where this is happening, try and join up for any Pride event held, let people know this is a horror happening in too many lives, preaching the worthlessness of queer lives. This needs to be countered at every level, and queer folk, especially the youth, need to know they are okay, they are whole, they are fine being who they are, and that they are not some broken thing which needs to be fixed.

Full story here.

Drinking the Orange Kool-Aid.

Cult-of-Trump-4

Rebecca Nelson at GQ has a very good article up about the current ‘crazy for Trump’ going on, and Rick Alan Ross, a cult expert and republican was watching this all with distaste, until a bell rang, and rather loudly. What he’s watching is the rise of a cult leader. The article goes through a number of points:

Sign I: His campaign is fueled by charisma.

Sign II: He’s a raging narcissist.

Sign III: What he says is always right. Even when it’s not.

Drinking the Orange Kool-Aid.

What has long bothered (and scared) me is that no one who follows Trump is remotely interested in seeing him subject to the same things the other candidates are, it’s always “different” in Trump’s case. That did not, and does not read like enthusiastic political support. This is more “alright, we can finally set up a dictatorship and start killing all the ___! Yes!”

The final note from the GQ article:

Trump doesn’t consider all women his spiritual wives, like the Branch Davidians’ David Koresh. And we can reasonably assume that he does not have plans to kill his supporters by giving them cyanide-laced Kool-Aid, as the Rev. Jim Jones did at his Guyana compound in 1978. Still, his ascendency could very well start a nuclear war. “We’re not talking about a compound with a thousand people,” Ross says. “We’re talking about a nation with over 300 million people. So the consequences of Trumpism could affect us in a way Jim Jones never did.”

Especially if you don’t drink the Trump Kool-Aid™.

Full story here.

Trump’s America: Bully Nation.

Student activist protests hateful environment in schools (Screen capture).

Student activist protests hateful environment in schools (Screen capture).

An ad from progressive group Move On shows how around the country, nonwhite and Muslim students are getting bullied by racist whites who’ve been emboldened by the unvarnished racism of the Donald Trump campaign.

Titled “Our Kids,” the video shows excerpts from news stories in which black, Muslim and Latino schoolchildren across the U.S. have been threatened and harassed by their white peers.

In Oregon, vandals hung a banner aimed at Latino students that said “Build a wall” — a reference to Trump’s promise to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep Latino immigrants out of the country.

At a high school basketball game in Chicago, white students chanted “Trump! Trump! Trump!” at black and Latino players and their supporters.

As the 75-second video moves from incident to incident, an ugly picture emerges of what’s motivating Trump voters, no matter what the candidate and his TV surrogates say about “economic anxiety” and “outsider politics.”

“Donald Trump is endangering our kids,” the ad says, before cutting to footage of students describing their experiences.

This country is caught in a whirlpool of shit. This hatred has to stop. Please, share this, get this out everywhere, it’s an important message for all.

Via Raw Story.

Council for National Policy.

Stephen Bannon.

Stephen Bannon.

If you’re like me, you went “who?” Yet another nasty group of people, who revel in extremism, and one I had not heard of before. As it turns out, two Trump henchpersons have not only heard of it, they are part of it. How surprising, right?

According to an SPLC statement, Breitbart.com CEO Stephen Bannon and pollster Kellyanne Conway — hired as Trump 2016’s CEO and campaign manager, respectively — are members of the Council for National Policy (CNP), a highly secretive group that includes a roster of controversial white supremacists and rightwing agitators.

“The CNP is not controversial so much for the conservatives who dominate it — activists of the religious right and the so-called ‘culture wars,’ along with a smattering of wealthy financiers, Congressional operatives, right-wing consultants and Tea Party operatives — as for the many real extremists who are included,” wrote SPLC senior fellow Mark Potok.

The SPLC was able to obtain the CNP’s closely-guarded 2014 membership directory and found that it included “people like Michael Peroutka, a neo-Confederate who for years was on the board of the white supremacist League of the South; Jerome Corsi, a strident Obama ‘birther’ and the propagandist hit man responsible for the ‘Swift boating’ of John Kerry; Joseph Farah, who runs the wildly conspiracist “news” operation known as WorldNetDaily; Mat Staver, the Liberty Counsel leader who has worked to re-criminalize gay sex; Philip Zodhaites, another anti-gay activist who is charged with helping a self-described former lesbian who kidnapped her daughter from her former partner and fled the country; and a large number of other similar characters.”

Conway and Bannon’s names both appear on the CNP’s 2014 membership roster. The SPLC was unable to determine their current membership status.

The Center noted that the CNP has every right to keep its membership secret, but the membership roster opens a window on how purportedly moderate Republicans meet and network with right-wing extremists in formulating their policy agenda and crafting legislation.

The CNP roster of members includes “real extremists, people who regularly defame LGBT people with utter falsehoods, describe Latino immigrants as a dangerous group of rapists and disease-carriers, engage in the kind of wild-eyed conspiracy theorizing for which the John Birch Society is famous, and even suggest that certain people should be stoned to death in line with Old Testament law,” the SPLC said.

Well. That’s terrifying. These are the people the so-called not completely batshit repubs are networking with, and we are now living in interesting times, with the rise of white nationalism and open bigotry. I think I could have lived without this particular knowledge, but it’s best to as knowledgeable as possible these days.

Via Raw Story.

The Poor Get Everything Free. It’s A Disaster.

Donald Trump and Wayne Allen Root (YouTube/screen grab).

Donald Trump and Wayne Allen Root (YouTube/screen grab).

Wayne Allyn Root, a Donald Trump admirer who often claims to be in frequent contact with the GOP candidate has led campaign rallies for him in Nevada, said yesterday that people who receive federal benefits such as Medicaid, welfare and food stamps should lose their right to vote, as should women who use “free contraception” under the Affordable Care Act.

Root’s plan would cut a large swath of Americans from the voter rolls: Roughly one in five Americans benefit from means-tested benefit programs, while 67 percent of women with private health insurance use copay-free contraception through the Affordable Care Act (which, by the way, is paid for by insurance companies, not by the federal government).

Root told Virginia radio host Rob Schilling yesterday that much of the energy behind Trump’s campaign, as he discusses in his new book “Angry White Male,” is that the country is “evenly divided between the makers and the takers,” so “the middle class is basically paying, paying, paying and the poor get everything free, and it’s a disaster.”

One time, we needed to apply for help, because serious broke, no food, no anything. We sat in an office for over 8 hours only to see someone who wanted us drown in a swamp of red tape, when we explained that a new job was in the works, just needed help for two weeks. Much frowning, sighing, and grumbling. Then a pronouncement: if you have a job, you don’t qualify for aid. “We. have. no. food.” Frowning, sighing grumbling part II. Wanders off to talk to other people. Finally comes back with a “I really shouldn’t do this…” Okay, I can give you two food vouchers. We received paperwork for $80.00 worth of food to cover the two weeks. In return, we had to commit to 80 hours (each) of community service. Anyone who thinks poor people get anything for free needs to be most seriously smacked.

Root said that he had recently seen a map on the internet showing that if only “taxpayers” had been allowed to vote, the 2012 election would have been “a Republican sweep.”

“So if the people who payed the taxes were the only ones allowed to vote, we’d have landslide victories,” he said, “but you’re allowing people to vote. This explains everything! People with conflict of interest shouldn’t be allowed to vote. If you collect welfare, you have no right to vote. The day you get off welfare, you get your voting rights back. The reality is, why are you allowed to have this conflict of interest that you vote for the politician who wants to keep your welfare checks coming and your food stamps and your aid to dependent children and your free health care and your Medicaid, your Medicare and your Social Security and everything else?”

Root quickly amended his statement to say that receiving Social Security and Medicare shouldn’t disqualify someone from voting, but “in general most of the things I just rattled off should preclude you from voting.”

We could get landslide victories by denying Christian straight white conservative men from voting, too. Hmmm.

“Social Security should not, Medicare should not, because you paid into the system,” he said. “But all the other stuff, all the other goodies, free Obama phones, free contraception, you know what, you can get them but you shouldn’t be allowed to vote, it’s a conflict of interest. Take that away, we’d win every single election in this country.”

:chokes on tea: Free contraception? On what planet? Here’s a thought – you pick up the tab for 20 years of contraception for 5 women, plus the pink tax they have paid for those 20 years. Then tell me what you think about free contraception.

Via RWW.

Prophet Trump.

Image Credit: Lance Wallnau: God is raising up Trump as a Cyrus to destroy political correctness.

Image Credit: Lance Wallnau: God is raising up Trump as a Cyrus to destroy political correctness.

Trump’s Wall ‘Isn’t About Mexico,’ it’s About Biblical Prophecy, so sayeth one Lance Wallnau. I hear a chorus of “whos?” In honesty, I don’t know, I hadn’t heard of Mr. Wallnau until today. It seems he’s not a pastor, but a Seven Mountains Dominionist theologian, or so people say. His current attempt at convincing Christians to vote for Trump is that Trump is just like Cyrus in the bible, an unbeliever who was used by god.

Seven Mountains dominionism advocate Lance Wallnau has been one of t he most creative defenders of Donald Trump on the Religious Right, explaining that Trump has an “anointing” from God similar to that of King Cyrus, whom God used despite the fact that he was not a believer.

Wallnau continued explaining his spiritual defense of Trump in two recent podcasts with Charisma magazine founder Steve Strang, explaining that Trump has an “unappreciated prophetic gifting” and that the candidate’s calls to build a border wall are not about the border at all but about instigating a revival among American Christians.

Wallnau recalled that Cyrus issued a decree that “opened a gate in heaven” and led the way for spiritual revival in Jerusalem.

“He opened a gate, Stephen,” Wallnau said, “he opened a gate in heaven with proclamation so that all the prophecies and prayers that were stored up for Jerusalem could suddenly begin to be manifested, beginning with the House of God getting revived and continuing on through Darius and to Artaxerxes until Nehemiah, on the basis of Cyrus’ decree, petitioned to build the wall.”

“And then I started looking at, my gosh, there’s more prophetic dialogue on Trump than Christians realize,” he continued. “This whole thing about building a wall isn’t about Mexico, it’s about in the Bible, from my perspective, Nehemiah’s project was to restore the boundaries around that which had collapsed where God’s people were concerned.

“I think that in the Bible, building a wall has to do with like Proverbs 25, ‘a man without self-control is like a city without walls,’ it’s broken down. Our fiscal situation is broken down, our race relations are broken down, our definitions of sexuality and gender are broken down. I believe that if Trump is allowed to be president, there will be a release of that stored up potential that we’ve been praying, fasting and prophesying into for the past 20 years for revival in America.”

Wallnau went on to describe to Strang how “if God can anoint a secular individual, then they are operating in a sense with God’s wisdom and guidance on them.”

Trump, he said, “has a remarkable and uncelebrated, I think, or perhaps I should say unappreciated prophetic gifting.”

He recalled how Trump told conservative religious leaders at a recent meeting in New York that “leadership is about seeing the future,” something that he said Trump had demonstrated with his predictions about radical Islam, the national debt, the inner cities, terrorism in Belgium and the fact that “he saw the Brexit before it happened.”

Liberals say that Trump’s rhetoric is “dark and dystopian,” he said, but “in fact, he’s merely describing, like a Churchillian gift, what is on the horizon.”

So, there you have it. Trump is an anointed prophet of Churchill’s caliber. Yes indeedy. Via RRW.  There’s a bit more information about Wallnau’s nonsense here, but you’ll need a tanker full of salt, and some way to guard yourself from fatal eyerolls. The comments, while depressing, are an interesting insight as to how christians are handling this political mess.

Sunday Facepalm: God Can’t Read the Clinton Emails!

Trey Gowdy. Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Trey Gowdy. Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Hillary Clinton’s legal team took such painstaking efforts to delete the former secretary of state’s emails that “even God can’t read them,” according to Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

Gowdy argued the use of BleachBit, a software whose website says it can “prevent recovery” of files, further bolsters accusations that Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, had something to hide in deleting all the personal files from her time at the State Department.

According to Clinton, the emails she deleted were all of a personal nature, most of which pertained to yoga and her daughter’s wedding. Gowdy, though, isn’t so sure and wants to know if the presidential hopeful considered emails about the Clinton Foundation personal.

“She and her lawyers had those emails deleted. And they didn’t just push the delete button; they had them deleted where even God can’t read them,” the lawmaker said during an appearance on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” Thursday. “They were using something called BleachBit. You don’t use BleachBit for yoga emails or bridemaids emails. When you’re using BleachBit, it is something you really do not want the world to see.”

You really can’t mock these people sufficiently, they do such a good job of mocking themselves. “Where even God can’t read them.” No god is specified here, but I will assume Mr. Gowdy is referencing good ol’ Jehovah. A god which Christians insist is all powerful and all seeing. Can’t hide from God, oh no! God sees everything, every dirty thought, and where you put your naughty hands! Unfortunately, it seems software has breached that all powerful thing god had going. Tsk.

Via The Blaze, so take along a truck full of salt if you click over.

Burkini Ban Overturned.

The French beach ban on Islamic garb has caused controversy over women's rights and secularism and confusion over what constitutes a burkini (AFP Photo/Raymond Roig).

The French beach ban on Islamic garb has caused controversy over women’s rights and secularism and confusion over what constitutes a burkini (AFP Photo/Raymond Roig).

This whole snarl of nonsense has been one massive facepalm from the beginning. There was absolutely zero reasons for choosing a single type of beach wear and banning it. Hello, racism! And no, none of the supposed “reasons” made a damn bit of sense. Buzzfeed had a very good response to this idiocy. Some people at any beach anywhere will be covered up in one way or another, and it’s never been any sort of big deal. Oh, but Muslim women? No, no, nope. Can’t have that, expose your body for no good reason, or no beach for you!

France’s highest court has suspended a ban on the “burkini” in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet, in a decision likely to lead to the overturn of 30 more such bans in towns across France.

The French League of Human Rights this week asked that the Council of State, a top French court, overturn the ban. The Council of State’s judgment, released Friday afternoon, quashed the earlier ruling of a Nice court that on August 22 said the ban was legal.

The Council of State judgment said that the ban had breached “fundamental freedoms.”

Human rights league lawyer Patrice Spinosi told reporters that the decision should set a precedent, and that other mayors should conform to it, the Associated Press reported.

Amnesty International welcomed the decision, saying in a statement: “By overturning a discriminatory ban that is fueled by and is fueling prejudice and intolerance, today’s decision has drawn an important line in the sand.”

The bans, put in place throughout August by local authorities citing security concerns and issues of cultural cohesion, have been locally decided and enforced, but were backed by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who said the burkini was not welcome in France.

I’m having trouble believing this actually had to go to court. Hey, France, when you do this sort of isht, you’re becoming a lot more like Amerikka. Don’t do that.

Full story here.